Maybe. People kept saying he was back last year, then he'd fade on the weekends at majors, which was something that was unthinkable during his peak. We know he can win any of the regular events, but with Tiger, it has never been about anything other than the majors.

He is starting to get the fear factor back though. It's hard to see him not winning tomorrow, even with just having a two-shot league and eight guys within three shots of him, and some of those guys being pretty good players (particularly Fowler, Rose, and Haas).

He'll probably never be quite was he was in 2000-2008, but has any athlete in any sport ever set the bar higher than he did during that time?

I've never been a huge fan of his, but I do think it'd be pretty cool to see him at #1 again, if he does win tomorrow. I hope we get to see a Tiger-Rory showdown at a major sometime soon. We were always promised a Tiger-Phil showdown someday, but that never happened.

I really hate this argument. Is he back? Well if he wins today he'll have won 6 out of the past 20 tournaments he's been in. And yes obviously he hasn't won a major recently but that run is pretty impressive.

Also he won't, nor will anyone else ever be "back" to the form he had in early 2000's where he always dominated.

I think he missed his chance to pass Jack for number of majors won. It seems to get harder for the golfer over 40 to win many majors and his down cycle puts him at a disadvantage.

He is no longer a mental hurdle for his competition, most of it fed by the constant bombarding of media questions to his challengers about his invincibility. That edge is gone. He is now just seen as human as the next guy.

drdiags wrote:I think he missed his chance to pass Jack for number of majors won. It seems to get harder for the golfer over 40 to win many majors and his down cycle puts him at a disadvantage.

He is no longer a mental hurdle for his competition, most of it fed by the constant bombarding of media questions to his challengers about his invincibility. That edge is gone. He is now just seen as human as the next guy.

It looks that way to me too but even Jack won some majors at an older age. I had hoped Tiger would win 5 more to get past Jack and the white man clique there is in pro golf.

He isn't that old, if he finds his groove he can rattle off a string pretty quickly as long as his private life is in order and he doesn't get distracted. The edge he had and lost has yet to resurface, the look in his eye of daring anyone to run at him. He gets his game in order and that attitude back and he can make a run.

To Be P/C or Not P/C That is the Question..........Seahawks kick Ass !!!! Check your PM's, Thank you for everything Radish RIP My Friend. Member of the 38 club.

chris98251 wrote:He isn't that old, if he finds his groove he can rattle off a string pretty quickly as long as his private life is in order and he doesn't get distracted. The edge he had and lost has yet to resurface, the look in his eye of daring anyone to run at him. He gets his game in order and that attitude back and he can make a run.

37 yrs old. He isn't the young, brash phenom either.

And to Radish's point. I though Jack won a couple of times past 40 but obviously not at the rate he did prior to reaching 40.

I still say he doesn't beat the record. But there is about 13 years before he hits the Seniors. If we are all still kicking when he hangs it up, then we can re-visit the prediction (chances of that is very much near nil). For now, each has his own idea on how this all may turn out.

Woods will never be the player he was. He is just too banged up with major back and knee problems. He will I suspect have good runs at times. But, from '97 to '00 he was the the best that has ever played. The chip he made on 18 at the Masters is the best shot I have seen.

I respect the opinions of you all, but if you think Tiger will never intimidate again or dominate the sport, you are nuts. He is back. And the guys on tour are intimidated.

Boiling a guy's game down to simple stats is difficult in most sports, but in golf there are two that intimidate the hell out of everyone on the course. Proximity to the pin in regulation and putting. When Tiger stunk, so did his scoring irons and putter. Now he is back at the top of both categories. Back when Tiger was killing it, he was at the top of those categories. Swing changes take time and thousands of reps to get from your short clubs and into your driver, Tiger is still struggling with the driver some, but it will happen.

Also, for the first time in 4 years, Tiger is working the ball consistently both directions. (insert ball joke) (and insert joke) I don't care about Tiger's age, he has always been one of the most fitness oriented guys on tour and that will extend his career.

drdiags wrote:Just call me nuts then. Hope those who say he can eclipse Jack's record are correct. I will continue to have my doubts.

You aren't nuts. Him being back on his game and winning 5 more majors don't have to coincide. I don't buy into the notion that the only thing that matters is 5 more majors.

True. To be competitive into his late 40's is what I would expect. Winning majors are like winning SB titles. But I think that record was what helped drive him in his youth. He may be mere mortal now and accept that winning one here and there is still pretty good stuff.

I like a good story. Man rises to the ultimate, stumbles for a moment only to recoup some of his magic and excel again.

For awhile it was looking to me like he was going to go the route of David Duvall.

drdiags wrote:For awhile it was looking to me like he was going to go the route of David Duvall.

Duval is a pretty extreme example. There are very, very few athletes in any sport who fell as far off the proverbial cliff as he did. For some reason, Mark Prior is the first name that comes to my mind, although his peak wasn't as great as Duval's. Even at Tiger's worst, he was still in a tier of golfers like Steve Stricker, Nick Watney, Zach Johnson, etc, which might not be among the elite, but are still top 20ish.

Tiger doesn't need to win US Opens by 15 strokes to be considered "back", but I won't say he's truly back until he regains that fear factor in majors that he lost when YE Yang punked him out on Sunday at the 2009 PGA Championship. Maybe that's unfair, but Tiger has made his entire career about the majors, so that's really on him. In three of the four majors last year, he put himself in contention on Friday, and then faded on the weekend. When he was the best golfer in the world (I can't say unequivocally that he is right now, #1 in the OWGR or not), weekends at majors were when he was the most unstoppable.

My guess is that he wins one major this year; I'll say the British Open, and has two other major top 10s. There are only a few golfers I dislike enough to actually root for Tiger in a duel (Bubba Watson, Scott McCarron, and Spencer Levin might be the only ones), but I agree that the sport is more interesting when Tiger is great. If he can get his major mojo back, we could be in for some really fun tournaments between he and Rory McIlroy. I don't think it'll be long before Matteo Manassero and maybe Ryo Ishikawa are mentioned in that same breath as well.

Its still March. He has as many wins this year as he had has in the last three. His putter is alive and his short game is looking pretty dang good too. His misses are now misses and not the WTF? is that in the parking lot? shots off the tee.

Jack won 4 majors from Tigers age on, including a Masters at 46. Depending on where the Open(s) plays for the next decade, Tiger could win a whole bunch more. He will always compete at Agusta, St. Andrews, Torrey, Pebble, Medinah.

While he was working on the "big swing" his short game and putting kinda left him. It looks to be back, and if he putts the way he has been this yea in GA in a couple of weeks and doesn't start spraying the driver all over again, I'd go so far as to say he wins two majors this year alone.

Rory has boinked...he took the millions and switched every club in his bag when he should have stuck to his game.

This is golf folks ... even at 48, one can still have a great week end (of be lucky enough and everyone else has a bad week end) and end up winning here and there.Tiger will shadow the record. This young man is simply driven ... And Lindsey Vonn will keep give him the stability he needs ... (never underestimate the power of a woman) ... The Tiger is back ...

joeseahawks wrote:This is golf folks ... even at 48, one can still have a great week end (of be lucky enough and everyone else has a bad week end) and end up winning here and there.

Only one golfer has won a major at that age (Julius Boros). Tom Watson should be on that list as well (still can't believe that nearly happened), but it's not like the average 50 year old is a big threat on tour. The only guy over 43 who won a PGA Tour event last year was the 46-year-old Steve Stricker at a very limited-field event (the Hyandai Tournament of Champions, which typically has about 30 players in it). Tiger is extraordinary, but he'd be an extreme exception if he's a great player at 48. Unless, I'm forgetting somebody (entirely possible), the only golfers in the past 15 or so years who were still serious threats in their very late 40s were Vijay Singh and Kenny Perry (and even still, Singh won his last major at 41, and Perry never won a major).

I think Tiger is 'back' in that he found his iron and putter strokes again. He's putting like his old self and that is HUGE.

I think he'll take the overall PGA Tour event wins by a fair margin and if he manages to win a major this year he might yet contend with Jack's record. If he whiffs on all 4 again this year I think it gets exponentially harder to win 5 more. If he wins 2 majors this year then I think it's almost guaranteed.

Doug Baldwin took a hit to the head when he was younger and now can't remember how to drop a football. - SomersetHawk

joeseahawks wrote:This is golf folks ... even at 48, one can still have a great week end (of be lucky enough and everyone else has a bad week end) and end up winning here and there.

Only one golfer has won a major at that age (Julius Boros). Tom Watson should be on that list as well (still can't believe that nearly happened), but it's not like the average 50 year old is a big threat on tour. The only guy over 43 who won a PGA Tour event last year was the 46-year-old Steve Stricker at a very limited-field event (the Hyandai Tournament of Champions, which typically has about 30 players in it). Tiger is extraordinary, but he'd be an extreme exception if he's a great player at 48. Unless, I'm forgetting somebody (entirely possible), the only golfers in the past 15 or so years who were still serious threats in their very late 40s were Vijay Singh and Kenny Perry (and even still, Singh won his last major at 41, and Perry never won a major).

Jack was 46 when he won his last Masters, so there is that. And seeing as Tiger is dedicated to fitness, his career could last longer than somw who came before him.

Scottemojo wrote:And seeing as Tiger is dedicated to fitness, his career could last longer than somw who came before him.

I could see that; that's another way that Tiger has changed the game. Not that he's the first to care about fitness, but his dedication and level of fitness seems to have drawn a lot of attention from his competitors.

Tiger has had some significant injuries, however. Hard to tell right now how much those will effect him when he hits his mid-late 40s. Could be significant, or with the continued progression of sports medicine, that injury history could become irrelevant.

Scottemojo wrote:And seeing as Tiger is dedicated to fitness, his career could last longer than somw who came before him.

I could see that; that's another way that Tiger has changed the game. Not that he's the first to care about fitness, but his dedication and level of fitness seems to have drawn a lot of attention from his competitors.

Tiger has had some significant injuries, however. Hard to tell right now how much those will effect him when he hits his mid-late 40s. Could be significant, or with the continued progression of sports medicine, that injury history could become irrelevant.

When Tiger had the knee issues, he was running several miles per day. From what I understand, he has replaced some of that high impact stuff for more joint friendly fitness.

For me, watching him last year was painful. He was afraid of his driver, I have been there, and it sucks. He is still pulling drives, but he will get those swing changes into the long clubs as the season wears on. Also, he could not work the ball both directions last year, now he can. That kind of shows the swing change is complete.

yes tiger has suffered many leg injuries over the years, but bear in mind.. nobody on tour works out as rigorously, and keeps themselves fit more than tiger woods.... he may be 37, but he has the fitness of a man in his 20's ....